


Back From The Dead

by azbear



Category: Black Friday - Team StarKid
Genre: Bathing/Washing, Ethan Green Lives, F/M, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Medical Inaccuracies, Not Again, Parent Henry Hidgens, Past Child Abuse, Suicide Attempt, Temporary Character Death, because I hate myself, hidgens is ethan's uncle, i feel like i'm missing stuff..oh well, i was gonna kill him but i couldn't, note how i barely mention the medical stuff but what i do write is probably still wrong, uh what else
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:27:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24820822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/azbear/pseuds/azbear
Summary: Henry Hidgens finds out his nephew died.
Relationships: Becky Barnes/Tom Houston, Lex Foster/Ethan Green, Paul Matthews/Emma Perkins
Comments: 2
Kudos: 45





	Back From The Dead

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING: Hidgens mentions/mostly implies Ethan's parent's abusing him. He also mentions Ethan attempting suicide
> 
> i haven't edited this so it's probably not great oops, but i'm too tired to edit and i don't feel like waiting to post it so.

Lex wasn’t sure how to tell Henry.

How do you tell someone their nephew died because of some demonic doll possessing people? She wasn’t worried about him calling her crazy—he talks about crazier shit all the time! (Singing zombies taking over the world? Ha.) But Lex was worried about how he would react. Would he cry? Would he get angry like she had?

No reaction was worse than whatever else she had been imagining.

She told Henry and he went silent. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t even move! Emma had to drag him to his room after he stayed in the same spot for 2 and a half hours.

“Ethan is dead.”

Hidgens’s heart shattered into a billion pieces.  _ Ethan. _ His nephew is dead.

Hidgens could barely hear Lex tearfully tell him what exactly had happened. Kicked in the head.  _ It’s the most vulnerable part of the body! Take out the head, and the whole thing goes down! _ His nephew is dead.

Hidgens was unaware of anything anyone else said.  _ His nephew is dead. _ He vaguely remembered his student, Emma Perkins, leading him to his room and sitting him on his bed. She left him alone after pouring him a glass of water and leaving it on the nightstand.

Hidgens sat in the same position, staring at a crayon scribble on the wall for hours. His nephew is dead. How could he have let that happen? Why hadn’t he been there to protect him? He’d feared something awful was going to happen today and he had been right. He tried to call his nephew and his girlfriend when he heard about what was happening on the radio. Ethan hadn’t answered, and then the phones shut off when he tried Lex’s phone. Why didn’t he go out to check on them? He knew they were at the mall. Hidgens hasn’t been inside a mall in 14 years, (he’d taken Ethan to Build-A-Bear Workshop. He’d never seen the 4-year old smile so big in his life!) but he’d have been okay for 20 minutes to go find Ethan and the Fosters. He should have gone. He should have taken them back to his house where they would’ve been safe.

Hidgens felt like there were a thousand bricks weighing him down as he walked to Ethan’s bedroom.

The walls were half blue and half red. Ethan’s room had been blue as a child, but he started painting the walls red a year ago until he got bored and never finished it. There was still a bucket of dried red paint on top of a newspaper tucked in the corner.

There was a height chart on the wall next to the door with Ethan’s age and height every year since he turned 2. He’d been a small child, but around 13 years old he hit his growth spurt and grew almost 7 inches within a year. Hidgens had been the same way. There was a second and third set of markings next to Ethan’s that Hidgens hadn’t noticed before. (Hidgens rarely ever went into his nephew’s bedroom. He liked for Ethan to have a place that was only his.)  _ Lex Foster  _ and  _ Hannah Foster _ were the names above the markings. They started when Ethan and Lex were 9 and Hannah was 4.

Hidgens ventured further into the room. Ethan had a few posters of various bands stuck to the red sections of the walls with thumbtacks. There were about a thousand empty water bottles on the floor by the bed and an empty box of cheez its.

Hidgens doesn’t cry often. In fact, he hasn’t cried in 3 years, since the day Ethan went to the hospital after a suicide attempt, but he found himself with tears in his eyes when he saw the teddy bear in the middle of Ethan’s bed. His bear from Build-A-Bear. It was a light brown teddy bear, wearing a red sweater vest that matched the one Ethan had worn that day. Ethan had named the teddy bear “Toto” because he loved The Wizard of Oz as a toddler. Hidgens picked up Toto and sat on the bed. Just thinking.

Thinking about Ethan. How he was so young and had been through so much. He was barely 18! He hadn’t even graduated high school yet! And now he never would.

Hidgens wondered how things would have been different if Ethan lived with him instead of with his parents. Hidgens’s sister and brother-in-law were awful to their son! It always hurt him to send him back to them, but Ethan wanted to go. He thought maybe if he could be better behaved or do better in school or help out more around the house maybe they’d love him…. Hidgens should have kept Ethan when he was 4-years old and admitted to being scared to bring Toto home in case his father got mad at him for playing with it and hurt it. He was never afraid of himself getting hurt—almost like he knew it was coming anyway, so there was no use in being afraid. Ethan’s parents wouldn’t have cared if he never went home. Hidgens didn’t think they’d even notice.

Hidgens hated himself for not being a better uncle. He was really no better than the kid’s parents; he always sent him back to them, knowing what was going on behind closed doors. How many times had Ethan called him in the middle of the night crying after something his parents did to him? How many times had Hidgens patched him up, then held him as he cried himself to sleep? Maybe it sounded awful, but he wished Ethan was back with his parents right now. At least then he’d be alive and he could go rescue him like he should have done years ago.

He couldn’t even bury his body. The mall was set on fire and Lex didn’t know he was still in there until it was too late. She had tried to run back inside to drag him out, but Tom Houston held her back. Even if Ethan wasn’t just ash by now, he had to be burnt so badly that his body wouldn’t be distinguishable from all the other corpses in that mall.

Hidgens squeezed the teddy bear and was brought out of his thoughts by the doorbell ringing. Who could possibly be there? Nobody else knew where he lived except for the people already there! Even his sister didn’t remember where he lived anymore! It was probably some crazy asshole at the door. Hidgens didn’t care enough to get up and make them go away. They’d get the idea sooner or later.

They didn’t get the hint and kept ringing the bell.

Hidgens angrily put Ethan’s teddy bear on the bed and stomped downstairs, grabbing his gun.

“Who is it?” He demanded.

“U-Uncle Henry, ‘s me,” came the voice through the door.

Hidgens’s eyes widened. How could Ethan be there? Tom and Becky watched him die! Hidgens decided he didn’t care if this wasn’t really his nephew. He needed to see Ethan one last time, even if it was just some evil doppelganger like Hannah said she saw. He pulled the door open and saw his nephew (maybe) standing there, bruised and bloody, with burns on his arm and even some of his hair was burnt.

Ethan fell into his uncle’s arms and passed out.

Ethan came to in the bath. His uncle was gently scrubbing the blood from his wounds, but it still hurt. Everything hurt. He’d never felt this much pain before!

“I’m here, Ethan,” Hidgens promised. He’d never let Ethan leave his sight again.

“Hurts,” the teen whimpered.

“I know. I’ll get you something as soon as I can.” He still didn’t know if Ethan was really here. Was it an evil doppelganger in front of him? Or a hallucination? Hidgens didn’t know what he’d do if it wasn’t really Ethan. That’s why he was holding off on testing him.

“‘Re Lex n’ ‘nah here? ‘Re they okay?”

“Yes. They’re fine.” There was one point in Ethan’s favor. Of course he’s more worried about his girlfriend and her little sister than he is about himself. The kid had always cared more about other people than himself.

Ethan was silent after that. Talking hurt! The guy that punched him fucked up his jaw. Well, all of him was fucked up. He was relieved to find his car still in the parking lot so he didn’t have to walk 15 miles to his uncle’s house; walking hurt like a bitch! His leg was probably broken too.

After the bath, Hidgens carried Ethan to his room and set him on the bed so he could take care of his wounds before they got infected. 

“Toto,” Ethan whispered, smiling painfully as he picked up his bear.

Another point in Ethan’s favor. He knows the name of his first teddy bear.

Hidgens cleaned, disinfected, and bandaged everything before helping his nephew into pajamas.

“You’re going to need to go to the hospital as soon as possible, Ethan,” he said. “I can’t put a cast on your leg here. How was it outside? Did you pass the hospital?”

Ethan shrugged. One eye was swollen shut and he could barely see out of the other one. “Didn’ hear no one with torches n’ pigforks.”

“Pitchforks,” Hidgens corrected. 

“Yeah, that.”

Yet another point in Ethan’s favor. He frequently forgot what things were called and either renamed it with whatever word was closest to what he wanted to say, either by sound or the meaning, or combined words to make new ones, or described the thing until someone guessed what he was talking about. Three points was good enough. Maybe Tom and Becky were wrong. Maybe Ethan was never dead in the first place. Hidgens didn’t know how he came back to life, but he didn’t care. He’s here.

Hidgens didn’t know if it was safe to go outside, even just to the hospital. Becky was a nurse, but she couldn’t help much if Hidgens didn’t have what they needed to put a cast on Ethan’s leg.

“C’n we see Lex n’ ‘nah?”

Hidgens nodded. He scooped his nephew up onto his hip and took him to the Foster’s bedroom. He was getting old, but it’s not as if Ethan weighed very much. Even Lex could pick him up! Hidgens would bet money that Hannah could too if she wanted to.

Hidgens knocked on their bedroom door and quietly said the names of both girls. He hadn’t ruled out Ethan being a hallucination yet, but he’d find out soon if he was or wasn’t losing his mind.

Lex opened the door within seconds. Her eyes widened when she saw Ethan. “Ethan,” she whispered. “You’re-you’re okay?”

“‘F course,” Ethan said. “Know, I’d never leave you n’ Hannah.”

“Ethan?” Hannah asked, sitting up in her bed. “You were dead….”

Ethan shrugged. Talking was starting to hurt again, even with the painkillers his uncle gave him.

Hidgens walked into the room and sat on Lex’s bed. He kept Ethan on his lap. He felt like he couldn’t get close enough to the boy. He never wanted to let him go. Lex and Hannah sat next to them and clung to Ethan.

“Careful of his leg,” Hidgens told them. “It’s broken. He needs to go to the hospital.”

“Is it safe to go out?” Lex asked.

“I don’t know,” Hidgens admitted.

“Webby says the hospital is safe,” Hannah said.

“Then let’s go,” Hidgens said. He knew Lex and Ethan doubted Webby existed, but he didn’t. He trusted Hannah and Webby.

Lex didn’t think they should go alone, so they woke everybody else up (they were all surprised to see Ethan, especially Tom and Becky). Less than 20 minutes later, they were all piled into two cars and on their way to the hospital.

Ethan refused to let anybody besides Hidgens, Lex, Hannah, or Becky touch him. Hidgens had to convince him to let Becky touch him, because he hadn’t wanted her to at first. He screamed when one of the doctors tried to touch him, even though it was only meant to be a comforting shoulder pat before his x-rays.

Ethan was not happy when the doctor said he had to stay overnight. He was even more upset when Hidgens agreed! He just wanted to go back to his uncle’s house where he knew he was safe! However, Ethan did forgive the doctor and his uncle slightly when Becky put an IV in his hand and gave him morphine. He relaxed and felt the pain finally start to fade.

His right leg was broken, his right wrist was fractured, he had second and third degree burns on his left arm, and he had a cracked rib on his right side. He had a black eye and bruises everywhere else, but surprisingly, that was it. Ethan was shocked that his jaw wasn’t broken or something. Not that he was complaining. It was just bruised and very tender.

“Shoulda bringed Toto,” Ethan pouted up at his uncle.

Hidgens gave his nephew a small smile and rubbed his shoulder. “I’ll ask Emma and Paul to get him for you. Becky, will you ask them when you go back out?” There were too many people for them to all be allowed in Ethan’s hospital room. Hidgens, Lex, and Hannah were the only ones allowed to stay. Becky could come and go since she was his nurse. Becky nodded and finished wrapping a cut on Ethan’s head. It wasn’t anything serious, but it had started to bleed when she started fussing with it. Head wounds tend to bleed a lot.

“Rest, Ethan,” Becky told him. The teen nodded and leaned into his uncle when he sat next to him on the hospital bed. Lex and Hannah sat next to him in the chairs next to the bed. Ethan closed his eyes, but refused to go to sleep. He was afraid if he did he would never wake up.

Hidgens woke up in the afternoon with Ethan’s head against his shoulder. He looked down to see Ethan petting Toto’s fur with one hand while the other was holding Lex’s hand.  _ So it wasn’t just a dream. Thank god! _

Hidgens wrapped an arm around the teen’s waist and pulled him closer to him. He wasn’t sure just yet what was happening in Hatchetfield, but Ethan wasn’t going to be leaving his side for a long time. He would get everything Ethan needed or wanted from his parent’s house in a few days and that would be that. Ethan was moving in with him where he could keep him safe. Lex and Hannah could move in too. Their mother wasn’t the greatest either. Hidgens could keep them all safe. Nothing would ever hurt them again with him around.

**Author's Note:**

> i couldn't think of a way to put this in the story but: webby tells hannah that came back to life through how hard she, lex, and hidgens were grieving, their powers combined were enough to bring him back  
> now i can sleep. i started this at like 11:30 last night and now it's just about to be 6am. i refused to sleep until i finished writing this


End file.
